Allanw

The sway bar mount brackets are known to break on E39's: They can break at either end. New ones are available easy enough, and it is possible to get stronger aftermarket ones - Beastpower apparently... not cheap though. New genuine ones are cheap anyway. Plus, if the bracket is too strong, the mount can crack off the frame of the car

Gingercators.

E39 facelifts and E46 are nice. E60... still ugly. More so on the inside.

Oooof... that's ugly! I think I'd get a Tribeca instead: It's like they've taken one of them, fitted the biggest kidney grilles they could fit, and cable-tied on a bumper off something else. Ugh. The E70 will hold their price now, no-one will want the new one - just like the change from E38 to E65. They sold a shitload of E38's when they were being done away with.

I'd do all except the sump. The sump is a total pig of a job, and he only says possible - the others are likely to leak - fairly common problems, the sump is a rarer issue. The rocket cover can start to leak onto the exhaust, cuasing burning smells and smoke. Once the others are done, you may find the sump has nothing wrong. The oil from the oil filter housing gets everywhere - made my sump look quite wet.

Holy crap - I couldn't leave a car out in that! Looks seriously cold!!!

Yeah... I quite like some mercs too... thought the older ones are more my thing. I was joking about the hairdresser thing. I wouldn't have been, if it was a SLK I had a Suzuki Cappuccino, remember... Who am I to comment

Looks nice - awesome design. One of my mates is building something along the same lines (bagged trailer anyway) to carry his E21

get vinyl stuck on. Less lumpy.

Saw an early E39 parked in a paddock at Kaukapakapa yesterday. No pic though - dash cam has turned off It's gone absolutely straight off a corner, cleared a huge drain taken out fence and stopped. Wheels still straight ahead...

isn't there a difference between the Jap exhaust, and the Euro ones on E36's? I thought the jap one were more restrictive too? Maybe related to the Jatco box?

Bummer..... Not the result you wanted. If could be just the headgasket though - hard to confirm a cracked head until it's off usually. Cutting your losses and buying something else could be the same again - often the devil you know is better.

Score That's what dealers should do really. I think the V8 fans do lock a bit in traffic - the 8's run particularly hot - it helps with their pretty good economy.

Good idea - It is a really common problem spot. It wasn't fitted on early cars, so no problems with them. On Dads E30, it had a very very slight missfire - only once every couple of months, and only like a single cylinder missfired. On the Advice of Brent from Betta Motor Works up here, we cleaned it up (this was probably 10 or 12 years ago!) and it's never done it again since. Just on the weekend I cleaned it again, as I was poking around and saw it sitting there and though "Why not?" It's worth giving it a clean anyway with some decent contact cleaner and then a corrosion inhibitor. I use either Wurth or De-Oxit (which we use on Medical Electronics with great results). If the contacts are iffy, either replace them, or hard wire it.

I was going to take my Transporter to the Drags at the VW nats when they were in Auckland. It's only about as fast as a 4.0 Falcon to 80-90 k though :-) I'd need to have found 8 helmets too. Autos do have their advantages - if you want to accelerate suddenly on the open road, it's just a press on the pedal :-) No need to loose valuable fractions of a second changing down . Most of the time though, a manual feels more lively (They aren't actually faster ALL the time though). In a 540i, the difference is probably quite impressive, but unnecesary. Our manual 525i is actually pretty quick. I know most don't believe it - the 525i facelift is still considered a slug, because of it's "Big, Heavy" body, but it'll still eat the pants of an E30 325i manual (Dad has one), and they aren't usually considered slow. It certainly feels far faster than the autos. I wouldn't have considered a 525i auto, it would have been a 3.0 minimum (I can easily upgrade to a 3.0 too ) If you REALLY wanted a manual, I'd go for a 530i and do the conversion, which I would imagine is a LOT cheaper - boxes are far easier to get for one.

Uh-OH!

Because you weren't a hairdresser? Or because you weren't an old man? The AMG probably overcomes a lot of the "image" though

DO NOT RELY on an E39 Temp gauge! I'm not 100% on them that early, but cetainly the M52TU and M54 powered ones have gauges that are VERY heavily buffered - normal (12 o'clock) could be anything from abou 75C up to about 115C. For it to go red, the coolant is VERY hot! Also, unless you have high OBC (text display, not the car picture) it won't warn you if the coolant leaks out either. I get my parts from Paul at Milland.co.nz - he's very good. Really, to do it right, you'll want a water pump, thermostat, hoses, radiator (they can bow downwards at the bottom, prior to exploding) expansion tank, fan clutch (viscous coupling) and you certainly need to replace that fan! While you're doing that, you should probably do fan belts and tensioners/idlers, if they aren't done - the fan belt tensioners have been known to let go too (and they're pretty cheap). Make sure the electric fan works too. If you take it to someone who knows what they're doing, you may be able to leave some of those out - but they REALLY need to know what they're doing. There are some really useless "mechanics" out there, and some REALLY good ones, and even the really good ones may not know the E39 well enough. I wouldn't drive it with the broken blades and the locked fan clutch - the fan can disintegrate, and the locked fan clutch can overrev the fan, which has caused them to come apart without already being broken. Bits of the fan can take out a lot of other expensive parts. People get hung up on service history - having it taken to Team McMillan doesn't mean the owner paid for all the required or suggested work. It may have been serviced, but had mutliple faults noted which the owner chose not to do. It's the Kiwi way - "I can do that myself. Later" and it never gets done! So it may still require a lot of repairs or maintainance items. Hopefully the engine is fine (probably, unless you kept driving!), so it's just the service work that's required :-) If you fit all those parts, and the engine has got a blown headgasket, the parts cvan be transferred to a second hand engine, or can be used after the gasket replacement too. I hope it doesn't come to that though! Good luck

I think I have input in a lot of the hijacks/tangents!

If you've only changed the manifold, the rev limit is still the same - it's ECU determined.

I thought you were supposed to paint it silver, and mount it in FRONT of the bumper... even if it's not connected. On your diesel navara

It's not a bad colour - not like old-man-beige - it's far more caramelly. Realistically, the S62 and 6 speed would probably overcome pink leather

Funny... your neighbours will probably have no idea you've changed cars

NICE. It really looks good. Love the grey! Black is a bit bland, and beige is a bit "pipe and slippers"

No, that was in the US :-) Just the plastic cover.